Society Gists

How the law will check insecurity in the state

• Farmers, rural communities heave a sigh of relief

For Governor Dapo Abiodun, security is not just a soundbite but an expedient precept of governance. It is the wellspring of fortune and safety on his watch as the executive governor of Ogun State.

As the earth darkens when the sun departs, the fate of his domain was threatened by the frequent skirmishes pitting Ogun’s farming communities against daredevil herdsmen, who invade to destroy their crops and major means of livelihood.

Governor Abiodun understood that the safety of his people is the first essential, amid the conflict of motives and political interests bedevilling Ogun and neighbouring states in Nigeria’s southwest region.

Thus in response to the persistent insecurity plaguing his state, Governor Abiodun, yesterday, Thursday, September 30th, signed into law the Bill to Regulate Animal Grazing and Establishment of Cattle Ranching in Ogun State.

Abiodun, who assented to the bill during a Security Council meeting in the State Secretariat at Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, the state capital, called on the security agencies to swing immediately into action and enforce provisions of the law.

He asserted that the issue had been on the front-burner of public and political discourse across the six geopolitical zones of the country. It is a subject matter that has been discussed along the length and breadth of the country and which “we southern governors have discussed and endorsed,” said Abiodun.

According to him, Ogun has enjoyed peace among various ethnic nationalities until the recent farmer-herder skirmishes. He explained that the law was a vital and much-needed response to the highly aggravated security situation.

Herdsmen, according to Abiodun, have a six-month period of grace before it becomes illegal in Ogun State for cattle herders to occupy unapproved public areas and private land with their livestock for grazing. The law also prohibits the act of moving cattle around public places by herders.

Governor Abiodun said, “By implication, in six months, it will become unlawful to openly graze cattle or other livestock in the state”

The Ogun State House of Assembly had on July 8, 2021, passed the bill.

Speaker Olakunle Oluomo subsequently transmitted a clean copy to Governor Dapo Abiodun for assent.

The bill was passed after unanimous votes by the lawmakers at the sitting where the bill was read the third time.

As part of the measure, a committee headed by the State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Adeola Odedina, has been set up to midwife the implementation and enforcement of the new law.

The signing of the anti-open grazing law by Governor Abiodun followed the decision of the Southern Governors’ Forum last August, setting the September deadline to pass the law across the member states.

It would be recalled that pockets of skirmishes broke out in Ogun as a result of alleged open grazing in the Yewa axis of the State in April, necessitating the setting up of a peace committee headed by a former House of Representatives, Hon. Kayode Oladele.

The crises, this year, pitched Hausa-Fulani settlers against their Yoruba host communities. It is, however, expected that the anti-open grazing law will curtail the menace across the state.